[Ron Stringer]

On our way out to a rig in the North Sea, my colleague and I were unhappy to be 'bumped' off the first helicopter out of Aberdeen airport, having got up and left the hotel at 4.30 am to catch it. Some 'drilling' guys had taken priority, so we MIMCo technicians had to wait for the next flight. It was a sunny summer's morning so we made ourselves comfortable on a bench next to the check-in hut by the flight sheds and settled down to watch 'our' flight take off without us - the next flight one was not until about 5 hours later. The lucky ones passed us as they trooped across the grass to get on board and Richard and I had to endure quite a bit of banter about our bad luck in missing our flight.

The normal procedure was for the helicopter to lift off from the grass in front of the flight sheds to a height of 2 or 3 metres and then travel across the airfield at that height until it was over the main runway used by fixed-wing aircraft, where it hovered to await ATC clearance to depart for the rig. On this occasion the helicopter rose from the grass in front of us but instead of transferring from the hover to horizontal flight it fell back onto its wheels on the grass. The undercarriage splayed out and with the rotor still turning, the doors flew open and twenty or so guys shot out and scattered in all directions running as if from the hounds of hell. As they got clear, it was hilarious to watch them slow down and start to walk in a forced, casual way as if they hadn't been at all scared.

Nobody had been injured and they were all invited to collect their baggage from the stranded beast and assemble back at the check-in. After a while another helicopter was towed out of the flight sheds and run up. The 'lucky' people that had made the first flight were then told to board the replacement aircraft. There were some very pale faces among those walking out across the grass for the second time that morning.